1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a distance measurement device and a distance measurement method. More specifically the invention pertains to a distance measurement device that measures a distance to an object and a corresponding distance measurement method.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A conventional distance measurement method adopts an image processing technique to measure the distance to an object. This technique captures images of an object in two different shooting directions and processes the captured images of the object in the different shooting directions and computes a distance from a reference position to the surface of the object, based on the processed images.
A proposed technique relating to intense pulsed light varies the wavelength of the pulsed light according to the intensity of the pulsed light (see, for example, Japanese Patent No. 3390755). This technique utilizes the characteristic of a polarization-maintaining optical fiber that varies the wavelength of light according to the intensity of the light.